HALINA KOSTYRA

Halina Kostyra
Class 3
Seroczyn, 17 June 1946

My most memorable moment from the occupation

I have many memories from the war. What I remember best is our stay in the basement with a Polish soldier. At that time a German came and killed him right away.

Then we left the basement and came home, but the Germans didn’t want to let us go, they wanted to burn us alive there. I started crying, I clung to my dad’s neck and then they let us go.

Grandma told us to run to Rudnik, saying that there would be no battle there. We ran away to my aunt. Everyone was lying under the fence. Dad took a spade and dug a shelter under the pear tree. The planes were circling above us, and we went to the shelter. I fell asleep because I was afraid; I was little, I was only five years old. Dad went to my aunt for bread and mom also went, and I was left alone. The plane started firing and a bullet whizzed past my head.

Then we went home. We saw that Seroczyn was on fire. Our house had not burned down back then, but later the Germans came and burned it down. Then they took all the men and killed them.